Results tagged ‘ Carl Crawford ’

Andre Ethier is still in limbo, as Ken Gurnick of MLB.com reports. “It’s a little slower than we thought,” Ethier said. “At the eight-week exam, I was expecting to have the OK and go do baseball stuff and slowly progress into running. It was a little bit of a jaw dropper when you get the result. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t healed like I was hoping it was. I had to reassess that it would take a little longer. You always think you can bounce back quicker than you do.”

In his first rehab outing since going on the disabled list June 3, Yasiel Puig grounded out, homered to right center and walked.

Brandon McCarthy and Hyun-Jin Ryu came through their weekend rehab starts without issues and remain on schedule for their next appearances — Thursday for McCarthy, Friday for Ryu. McCarthy threw two innings June 11 in his rehab debut. Ryu pitched three innings June 12.

Carl Crawford cleared waivers and was officially released by the Dodgers.

Brock Stewart, the 24-year-old righty who was a sixth-round Dodger draft pick from Illinois State in 2014, made his Triple-A debut Monday for Oklahoma City. Stewart struck out seven in 5 2/3 innings and didn’t walk anyone until his final batter, though he allowed two home runs.

Another newcomer to the Oklahoma City starting rotation is 27-year-old righty Nick Tepesch, who was picked up after being released by Texas. Tepesch has made two five-inning starts for Oklahoma City, with a 2.70 ERA and nine strikeouts in 10 innings. He has 219 career big-league innings with a 4.56 ERA.

Frankie Montas isn’t exactly new to Oklahoma City, but he is officially off the Dodgers’ 60-day disabled list and was officially optioned Sunday. With 11 strikeouts against one run in his first 7 2/3 innings (two appearances), Montas has done nothing to discourage speculation that he is on the fast track to Los Angeles. He next pitches Wednesday.

The decision to designate Carl Crawford for assignment, thus ending his Dodger career, was made Saturday night. It was a decision out of seeing that Father Time, as Dodgers manager Dave Roberts put it, is catching up to the 34-year-old.

And then there’s the word we’ve grown so accustomed to with the Dodgers — flexibility — which Austin Barnes, called up from Triple-A, gives the Dodgers more of.

“That’s always a tough one,” Roberts said on the move. “I think for Carl, myself, the organization, it’s one of those things where you look at the player — and Carl’s had a great career and 14 years and had a lot of great moments, and I know he was proud to be a Dodger and he will be missed … (but) where we’re at right now and where this organization wants to go, you have a lot of young guys coming.

“Carl was in that position 14 years ago. And so there’s guys who have to get opportunities that need opportunities to make us better, and he completely understood that.”

Through 28 games last season, the Dodgers hit 47 home runs — the most in the Majors at the time. They also scored 143 runs, which was tied for third-best, with 51 percent of those runs scoring on home runs.

Through the same amount of games this season, the Dodgers have hit 20 homers — 29th in the Majors — and have scored 121 runs, ninth in baseball. Thus far, the Dodgers are getting 24.8 percent of their runs from homers.

The Dodgers have scored 91 runs this season by methods other than a home run. At this time last year, they scored 70 runs by methods other than a home run.

When is a platoon not a platoon? According to Dave Roberts, when it isn’t quite a platoon.

Though the Dodgers have leaned heavily on lefty-righty matchups in constructing their offense this season, Roberts explained today some of the distinctions that he sees.

“Certain guys, their out pitch is a changeup,” Roberts said. “Certain lefties, it’s a breaking ball. So when typically, it’s a breaking ball is their best secondary, then it’s harder for the left-on-left — the visual. Guys that have a changeup as an out pitch, typically the left-handers can handle them more. There are other components to it as well.”

Carl Crawford has been activated from the 15-day disabled list, with Zach Lee returning to Triple-A Oklahoma City.

Crawford started (but didn’t finish) the Dodgers’ first three games of the 2016 season and pinch-hit in the fourth, going 3 for 11 with a double.

“Just seeing him jump around and want to be back with the guys and be an active player again, it’s exciting, and we look forward to getting him back in the lineup,” Dave Roberts said.

Roberts talked about how Crawford would fit into an increasingly crowded rotation in left field, with Howie Kendrick, Trayce Thompson and Kiké Hernandez.

“It’s kind of one of those high-class problems,” Roberts said. “We’ve talked about depth, and this is kind of where it’s showing its head a little bit in that now there’s different options, and guys have to be unselfish. Today, it’d be great to get Howie back in there, but for me I’m going to give him a day and get him back in there tomorrow.”

Roberts later added that optimally, Crawford would start three or four times a week.

“We’ve seen there’s a propensity to get injured,” Roberts said. “I think for me, even in the beginning of the season, you saw I took him out just to kind of keep him off his feet, and so the idea of running him out there until he breaks is not something I believe in, so I just try to kind of conserve as much as possible and use that depth.”

Some pregame notes follow, but mainly they’re just to fill out the post beneath Jon SooHoo’s great shot of Dodger Stadium from Friday (click the pic to enlarge). Make sure you’re regularly checking out his blog.

Yasmani Grandal, who came off the disabled list Tuesday, could start back-to-back games for the first time in 2016 this weekend. Yasiel Puig has his first scheduled game off today but is expected to be back in the lineup Sunday.

Hyun-Jin Ryu has a groin strain that forced him to postpone today’s scheduled bullpen session for at least a couple of days.

Carl Crawford has been placed on the 15-day disabled list with lower back tightness, and the Dodgers have recalled Micah Johnson from Triple-A Oklahoma City.

As Ken Gurnick of MLB.com reported Friday, Crawford has been dealing with the back issue since the middle of Spring Training.

Crawford, who has missed at least a month a season with an injury for each of the last five years, said he has had occasional lower-back issues in the past that would “flare up and cool down.” He said he is particularly puzzled because he worked over the winter and spring specifically in an attempt to avoid injuries.

“It seems like the opposite happened,” he said. “I feel terrible about that. I really tried hard to maintain my strength in the core and back and I’m still having issues.”

Crawford was 3 for 11 with two RBI in the young 2016 season, playing 17 innings in three games in left field.

Johnson is a second baseman, but he started in left field Friday with Oklahoma City for the first time in his pro career. He was 3 for 9 in Triple-A in two games, after OPSing .841 in 2015 with 28 steals in 35 attempts.

As the Dodgers returned home from their wanderings in the desert, they took another step toward finalizing their Opening Day roster — with other steps remaining to go before Saturday morning deadline.

Dodger manager Dave Roberts said that Alex Guerrero remains at Camelback Ranch and will begin the season on the disabled list

“He had an MRI that showed minimal damage, but now we at least understand the discomfort and the pain he’s having in his knee,” Roberts said. “I really don’t know what the specifics were — I talked to the training staff, and whatever verbiage they used, it kind of validated some of the pain he’s been having.”

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